family tree

I’m writing up my notes about my wife’s ancestors the Black family of Lincolnshire for a relative who is visiting England next year.

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John Black & Eleanor Martin

The story begins in 1773, in the Lincolnshire village of Carlton-le-Moorland, half way between the market town of Newark-on-Trent and the city of Lincoln, with the birth of a child. On 7 March that year, a girl was baptised in Carlton at the village church of St Mary’s, her name entered into the register as:

Black mark – the mark of John Black “of Doncaster in the County of York“, his marriage bond, 11 March 1773. Reproduced from the original held at Lincolnshire Archives.

Four days later, no doubt under pressure from the Martin family and from the church, the girl’s father John Black obtained a marriage bond from the Diocese of Lincoln: this allowed him to marry Eleanor Martin on 12 March 1773 in Carlton-le-Moorland without the usual reading of Banns… on pain of forfeiting £200 to the diocese if the marriage turned out not to be valid.1,2

(Spelling being much more variable in the 18th century than it is today, Eleanor Martin’s name was sometimes written as “Hellen”, and she herself signed the marriage register using the spelling “Ellner”. John Black made an “X”.)1

While Eleanor was resident in the parish of Carlton-le-Moorland, John Black had come from Doncaster in Yorkshire, forty-odd miles to the north. Like most working men in England in the time before the industrial revolution, John was an agricultural labourer.

John Black died in Carlton-le-Moorland in 1803. He was 57 years old when he died, which places his birth around the year 1746.1 I haven’t yet traced John’s early life in Doncaster before he came to Lincolnshire. He may have been born and baptised there, or like many agricultural labourers he may have moved from parish to parish, securing work at annual hiring fairs before eventually settling down.

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William Black & Ann Eato

At some point before or following the death of John Black, his family moved to the village of Waddington, eight miles from Carlton-le-Moorland on the road to Lincoln. I haven’t been able to find out what happened to Eleanor and John’s first child – their daughter Fanny – but their two sons George and William Black both became successful farmers in Waddington. (Eleanor herself died in Waddington in 1827 at the age of 82 and was buried back in her home village of Carlton-le-Moorland.)1

The elder son George married Mary Hammond on 16 May 1809 at the old parish church of St Michael in Waddington.3 (This old twelfth-century church no longer exists – it was destroyed on the night of 8 May 1941 by a bomb intended for the nearby RAF base.)4 George and Mary had two sons (George and John); the family farmed land on the manor of Mere Hospital, east of the village of Waddington though now cut off from it by the huge airbase at RAF Waddington. George Black died in November 1846.3,5

John and Mary’s younger son William married Ann Eato on 17 May 1821 in Waddington. “Eato” is an unusual old East Midlands surname subject to more than the usual amount of spelling variation – for example on William and Ann’s entry in the marriage register it is spelt “Aitoo”.3

Ann came from Wellingore and was the daughter of Joseph Eato and Mary Codling.6 Ann and William Black had eight children in Waddington village:3

Eleanor [or El(l)en, or Helena!] (1822)

William (1825)

Joseph (1826)

Mary (1828)

John (1830)

George I (1832 – died in infancy)

George II (1833)

Ann (1837 – died in infancy)

By now you will have spotted the repetition of names across the last two generations. This seems to be a particular feature of the Black family – until the early 20th century they were very conservative in following the traditional practice of naming sons after fathers, uncles and grandfathers; daughters after mothers, aunts and grandmothers. All families did this to a certain extent, but in farming families like the Blacks the custom seems to have been followed rigidly. It can make it difficult to trace individuals when, for example, there are four George Blacks on the go in the same village at the same time…

Sketch family tree of the Black family (part 1). Click on the image for a larger version.

William and Mary Black, with two of their six surviving children, appear in the 1851 census of England in the parish of Waddington. William – aged 66 and born in Carlton-le-Moorland – is listed as a cottager or smallholding farmer of 8½ acres – this is the land the Blacks were known to farm at Mere Hospital.7

When William died on 17 May 1856 he was 71 years old. In his will, proved at the Consistory Court of Lincoln on 6 June that year, William specified that the 8½ acres of copyhold land he held of the manor of Mere Hospital be made available for the use of his wife Ann for the rest of her life or until she remarried, then divided amongst their six living children (sons William, Joseph, John and George; daughters Elen and Mary).8 William’s wife Ann Black née Eato died one year after her husband, in June 1857.3

All of William and Ann’s children lived out their entire lives in rural Lincolnshire – except one. Their youngest son George Black (born in 1833) – named after an older sibling who sadly lived for less than a fortnight – was apprenticed to a joiner in his home village, but left Lincolnshire for the Chorlton area of industrial Manchester, where he became a beer retailer.7,9 He died in Manchester in 1868.10,11

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William Black & Mary Robinson

William Black’s second child and eldest son with his wife Ann was named William Black after his father.

William the younger was baptised at Waddington St Michael’s on 1 May 1825.3 This William was born at a time of agricultural revolution in England, as a wide variety of new machinery was developed and new efficient methods of farming introduced. By the time William senior died in 1856, the proportion of the British population working in agriculture was under 22% – lower than in any other country in the world.12

On 8 July 1851 – three months after he was enumerated on the 1851 census as an agricultural labourer, living with his parents in Waddington – William Black married Mary Robinson at her home parish church of All Saints, Nettleham.13 Mary’s parents were William Robinson and Jane Clayton. The Robinsons were originally from Rampton in Nottinghamshire but had been living in Nettleham since the 1820s.7,13

The signatures of William Black & Mary Robinson, from the parish register entry for their marriage, 1851. Reproduced from microfilm held at Lincolnshire Archives.13

By 1861, William and Mary were living in Waddington on Ancaster Road, with the eldest three of their eventual four children:3,9

Ann (1855 – died aged 15)

William (1858)

Mary (1860)

Ada (1869 – died in infancy)

After his mother’s death in 1857, William junior had inherited a part of his father’s land in the manor of Mere Hospital.8 By 1861 he had added to these 8½ acres, being recorded as cottager of 20 acres of land. (Yet more of the Mere Hospital land was being farmed by William’s siblings and Black cousins.)9

William died on 26 August 1872.3,10,11 The executors of his estate – his widow Mary and brother Joseph – arranged a public sale of the Mere Hospital copyhold land, at the Horse and Jockey Inn in Waddington on 24 October 1872.11,14 This sale of the land seems slightly strange to me: why didn’t the copyhold pass to William’s only son – who certainly carried on farming – and/or his only surviving daughter Mary? William’s probate file – which could be ordered from the UK Find a will service – may hold the answer.11

William’s widow Mary was still living in Waddington in 1881. She was recorded as being of independent means: perhaps she was still living off the profits of the sale, eight years earlier, of her late husband’s land. With her was her son William, aged 23 and a farmer.15 Three years later her daughter Mary, who had been working as a cook in service at Usselby Hall,15 married coachman Edward Barnes.16 The couple moved to Coleby, the next-but-one village south of Waddington, and the widowed Mary Black moved in with her daughter and son-in-law: she died in 1891 shortly after the census was taken.3,17

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William Black & Mary Pask

William Black, the third generation to hold that name, was born on 7 February 1858 in Waddington.3,10,18

William III grew up in Waddington, the son of a farmer and later a farmer in his own right. For some reason he did not inherit his father’s land at Mere Hospital manor, which was sold in 1872.14

On 19 July 1885, William married Mary Pask at the Free Methodist Chapel on Silver Street in the city of Lincoln. (This chapel no longer exists – it was demolished in the early 1970s.)10,17

Mary Pask, the daughter of master cordwainer (shoemaker) William Pask and his wife Rebecca née Mabbott, was born in the village of Navenby on 9 March 1864 but grew up in nearby Welbourn before going into domestic service.10,15,18

The surname “Pask” is another unusual and interesting one, deriving from the Norman-French Pasque meaning ‘Easter’, and ultimately from Hebrew פֶּסַח (Pesach) – Passover. There is a long-running and comprehensive one-name study of the Pask families of Lincolnshire and elsewhere, with a website at: www.pask.org.uk

By the time of her marriage to William Black in 1885, Mary’s parents had moved to Boothby Graffoe, not far from William’s home village.15Her mother Rebecca Pask (née Mabbott) is at the centre of a family photograph taken probably around the time of her 90th birthday. In it, Rebecca (born 1842), wearing very Victorian-looking black, is seated in her garden at Boothby Graffoe surrounded by members of her family including her daughter Mary and probably her son-in-law William Black. She is certainly the earliest person in my family tree that I have a photo of.

William and Mary Black née Pask left Waddington around the year 1887. Initially they moved into the West End of the city of Lincoln where William worked as a general labourer.17,20 Following this, the family spend several years moving from village to village (Burton in 1901; Nettleham in 1902; Skellingthorpe in 1903) where William did a series of agricultural jobs – these moves are reflected in the varied birthplaces of their children.21–25

By 1906 the Black family were back in Lincoln, settling down at number 35, Hope Street, near the corner with Norris Street, in the south of the city very near the Cowpaddle common.24,25,26

Sketch family tree of the Black family (part 2). Click on the image for a larger version.

William and Mary had a large family – the largest in my family history software – of fourteen children:

Jennie (1885-1971) – born 8 December, Waddington. Worked as a domestic servant for George John Bennett, noted composer and organist of Lincoln Cathedral. Had a son, Robert Sydney (“Bob”) Black in 1913. Married building contractor Albert E. Donson, 1936, Lincoln; they lived at her parents’ old house, 35 Hope Street.10,18,25,27

William “Jack” (1887-1972) – born 5 February, Waddington. Emigrated to Australia; married Aletha May Eggins, 26 May 1915, Sydney. Lived at 443 Cabramatta Road, Liverpool, New South Wales; worked as a railway employee.10,18,28,29,30

Ada (1888-1948) – born 16 November, Lincoln. Married fish dealer Naaman Spicer, 19 December 1910, St Andrew’s Church, Lincoln. Lived in Long Bennington, Lincolnshire and Stanton Hill, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. Eight children including two sons who emigrated to the Canadian province of British Columbia.10,18,25,27,31

George Mabbott (1890-1915) – born 30 November, Sturton by Stow. Worked as a farm waggoner and foundry machine hand. Joined the Royal Navy in 1914 as a stoker. Died of dysentery on board HMS Wolverine, Aegean Sea, 27 August 1915; memorialised at East Mudros Military Cemetery, Lemnos (Λήμνος), Greece.10,18,25,32,33,34

Amy (1893 – died in infancy)

Alice (1894 – died in infancy)

Eva (1896-1957) – born 12 February, Lincoln. Married Harry Bunn, 1923, Lincoln; one son (Maurice) who died in infancy. Worked as a housekeeper in Lincoln.10,18,25,27

Arthur (1897-1915) – born 2 May, Lincoln. Worked as a butcher at a shop in Sincil Street, Lincoln. Joined the 4th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment in 1914. Killed in action in the battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt, 13 October 1915; his name is recorded on the Loos Memorial.10,18,25,34,35

Fred (1899-1991) – born 17 August, Lincoln. Joined the Royal Navy in 1921; also served three years with the New Zealand Navy from 1926. Married Violet G. Goodenough, 1922, Kingston, Surrey; seven children. Lived in Portsmouth.10,18,25,32,36

Harry (1901-1986) – born 31 October, Burton. Married Annie Goy in 1928 in Timberland; five children. Lived on Fen Lane, Timberland; worked as a general labourer.10,18,25,27,36

John Victor (1903-1975) – born 6 May, Skellingthorpe. Married Elsie May Cullen, 1939, Lincoln. Lived at 14 Palmer Street, Lincoln; worked as a railway shunter.10,18,25,27,36

Cyril Stanley (1908-1974) – born 28 May, Lincoln. Lived in Timberland; worked as a roadman. Married Mabel Barrand, 1940, Timberland; one son.10,18,25,27

I’ve written elsewhere about the brothers George Mabbott Black and Arthur Black, both of whom were killed in the First World War – one by disease and one by enemy action. Since that original post I have been sent a copy of a newspaper article from 1915 which reported that the younger of the two brothers, Bugler Arthur Black of 4th Battalion, Lincolnshire Regiment, had been reported missing in action. The article includes part of a letter of sympathy and reassurance written by Arthur’s comrade – and fellow Lincoln resident – Signaller George Crosby, to Arthur’s mother Mary Black:35

On Tuesday, 13 October 2015, the centenary of the battle which killed Arthur Black, the bells of St Mary-le-Wigford in the centre of the city of Lincoln rang out half-muffled. The names of the men killed on that day were placed on a board outside the church.

“I will enquire all over, every day, until I do hear of him…
It was terrible that day. Hundreds seemed to fall, and to see them falling, to rise no more, by our side, sent us all mad…
Mrs Black, if the worst has happened, you can take it from me that he died a hero, and I am proud to be a pal of his.”

William Black died at his home at 35 Hope Street, Lincoln, on 16 November 1938. He was eighty years old.10,26

His widow Mary moved out to the village of Timberland, fourteen miles south-east of Lincoln in the Witham Fen, to be near her sons Harry and Cyril Black; she died there in August 1939 after a short illness.10 Her funeral was attended by nine of her ten surviving children (only William, in Australia, could not be there) and by dozens of members of the extended family.38

My great-great-great-great-great grandfather (i.e. five greats) Francis Stainthorp (1765-1822) and five-greats grandmother HannahnéeWaring (1768-1836) are buried in the churchyard of All Saints Church, Rudby-in-Cleveland, in the north-east corner of the North Riding of Yorkshire, about nine miles south of Middlesbrough.1

My Stainthorp ancestors lived in the adjoining village of Hutton Rudby from at least the early 1600s until c.1890.2 Our surname derives from the former market town of Staindrop, across the River Tees from Hutton, in County Durham. The placename matches Old Norse steinn + þorp meaning the ‘stony’ settlement or farmstead, or one belonging to a Dane named Steinn,3,4 but is probably a Scandinavianization of an underlying Old English placename stǣner (‘stony’) + hop (‘valley’).5 Staindrop is spelt Stainthorp or -thorpe on some eighteenth-century maps and gazetteers.6,7 The manorial district around the village was anciently known as Staindropshire.8 A Gilbert de Steyndrope, goldsmith and sheriff, was recorded in London in 1346.9

The market town of Stainthorp (Staindrop), in “A Map of the BISHOPRICK of DURHAM North from London” by T. Badeslade and W.H. Toms, 1742.

The local history society in Hutton Rudby have transcribed the parish records for All Saints:2 despite dozens of Stainthorp burials recorded in Rudby over two centuries, Francis’s is the only one of my ancestor’s graves marked with a headstone.10 The memorial inscription is very well preserved and reads:

“Sacred
TO THE MEMORY OF
FRANCIS STAINTHORP,
who died July the 19th, 1822;
Aged 57 Years.
ALSO
JANE his First Wife,
who died June the 17th, 17[95?];
Aged 31 Years.
ALSO OF
HANNAH his Second Wife,
Who died August the 14th, 1836;
Aged 68 Years.”

Francis Stainthorp, the only? son of Robert Stainthorp (d. 1820?) and MargaretnéeWilchinson (d. 1771), was baptised at Rudby parish church on 10th March 1765.2 He became a linen weaver – hand-loom weaving at home was the traditional occupation in Hutton, which was at the centre of the Cleveland linen industry, processing Baltic flax brought into the Tees ports.1,11 The village was also notorious for its connections to smuggling:

Francis married twice and had a total of ten children.2 Of those ten, three died in early childhood and the parents re-used their forenames for subsequent births. (This seems odd today but was not uncommon in the early nineteenth century.13 I have used Roman numerals I, II and III to distinguish the births below.)

On 23rd May 1786, Francis married Jane Kendale at Rudby All Saints.2,14 They had three children:

John I, died in infancy

Margaret (b. 9th March 1791)

Jane (baptised 9th February 1794)

Francis’s wife Jane died in 1795 aged just 31 and he married Hannah Waring on 14th April 1798.2,15,16 Hannah and Francis had a further seven children:

In 1807, the 42-year-old Francis Stainthorp’s name and occupation were recorded in the county poll book for that year’s election to the House of Commons of the two county MPs for Yorkshire – the so-called “Knights of the Shire”.18 Francis had the vote, pre-Reform Act, becaue he was a freeholder resident in the liberty of Langbaurgh (the wapentake which included Hutton Rudby). This was no secret ballot: how each man voted was recorded and published. Francis’s candidate—the incumbent anti-slavery MP William Wilberforce—retained his seat.19

As his gravestone inscription records, Francis Stainthorp senior died on 19th July 1822 at the age of 57; he was buried two days later in the churchyard at Rudby All Saints, where his bones presumably still lie.2,10

In his will, written on 21st January 1822, and proved at the Exchequer Court of York later the same year, Francis left a considerable amount of property to his wife, five surviving daughters (Hannah, Mary, Ann, Margaret and Jane) and sons Francis and John. The will mentions several houses in Hutton occupied by tenant weavers, two acres of land, an orchard, “farming stock, Implements of Husbandry, and stock in Trade… Household goods, furniture, plate, linen and china“, and sums of money to be given to each of his children. A copy of the will is held on microfilm at the Borthwick Institute for Archives in York;20 the will is also summarised and the estate valued in the death duty registers held at the National Archives.21

“I give to my said Wife for her own use
absolutely the Cow now in my possession…”
— excerpt from Francis Stainthorp’s will.20

After his death, some of Francis senior’s property in Hutton—consisting of two houses with a garden, orchard, [work]shop & stable—was bought by David Hebbron, a butcher.22 Francis’s elder son, Francis, lived to 78 and was one of the last hand-loom weavers in the village.23 Francis junior and his wife Ann Seamer had three sons of their own in the 1830s,2 though all but the youngest died in childhood.24,25

Section of Francis Stainthorp’s will, held in the Borthwick Institute in York

Francis junior’s third son Charles Stainthorp (1835-1905) and grandson William (1862-1924) became butchers, after the industrial revolution brought cheap imported linen to Britain and put paid to cottage hand-loom weaving in north-east Yorkshire. Ironically one of the last uses of Hutton Rudby home-spun linen was to make blue apron material for butchers like Charles and his descendants.26

After a series of family and financial tragedies in the 1870s and ’80s, Charles and William Stainthorp both left the North Riding and moved their families to what would later become the metropolitan area of Tyne and Wear. William’s youngest child: my great-grandfather Henry Harland (Harry) Stainthorp, was born in Sunderland in 1904. He carried on the Stainthorp family butchering business on Tyneside, succeeded by his own eldest son: my grandfather, who ran a butcher’s shop in Whitley Bay until he retired in 1986.

There were no (living) Stainthorps left in Hutton Rudby by the end of the nineteenth century.

Hutton Rudby and District Local History Society. Handwritten transcriptions from the registers of the parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entries for ‘Stainthorp’ and related spellings. Copy in the possession of Paul Harland Stainthorp (paul@paulstainthorp.com).

Badeslade, Thomas and Toms, William H. ‘A map of the Bishoprick of Durham north from London.’ In: Chorographia Britanniæ: or, a new set of maps of all the counties in England and Wales, etc… 1742.

Camden, William. Britaine, or, a chorographicall description of the most flourishing kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland. London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610. Transcription by Dana F. Sutton, 14th June 2004. A Vision of Britain Through Time. http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/travellers/Camden/27#pn_9 (accessed 14th October 2014).

Sharpe, Reginald R. (editor). Calendar of letter-books preserved among the archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall: letter-book F, 1337-1352. Folios cxxi-cxxx, pages 143-156. London: John Edward Francis, 1904. British History Online. http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=33540 (accessed 14th October 2014).

Pierson, Thomas. Roseberry Topping: a poem (originally published 1783): with notes, and also a notice of the author and a memoir of the late Thomas Jennett. Edited by John Walker Ord. Stockton: Jennett & Co., 1847. Google Books. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HbksAQAAMAAJ (accessed 14th October 2014).

Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the marriage of Francis Stainthorpe and Jane Kendale, 23rd May 1786.

Diocese of York. Bishop’s transcripts. Parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the marriage of Francis Stainthorpe and Hannah Waring, 14th April 1798.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Transcription from the registers of the parish of Rudby-in-Cleveland. Entry for the marriage of Francis Stainthorpe and Hannah Waring, 14th April 1798. Genealogical Society film number: 918436. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/NKBD-X5W (accessed 14th October 2014).

One of my great-grandfathers was Frank Corr a.k.a. Frank O’Grady (1888-1962) of Birmingham and Sheffield. I’m trying to confirm the origins and discover the fate of his biological father Luke O’Grady, my great-great-grandfather. What follows is an outline of the life of Frank O’Grady/Corr, notes on the identity of Luke O’Grady, and my ideas for further research.

Frank was born on Sunday, 22nd January 1888, at the back of 135 Brearley Street in the Lozells area of Birmingham.1

His mother was EmilynéeFarley, born 1854,2 the widow of Edward Corr, a turner & fitter from Wolverhampton.3 Edward’s parents were Felix Corr and Harriet née Spooner.4

Emily and Edward married on 14th July 1872.5 They had seven children together: John Felix (1873-1956), Florence (1876-77), Beatrice (1876-77), Alfred Edward (1877-1900), Emmett (1880-81), Edward (1883-1933), and Harold (1885-1952).2 Three children died in infancy. In 1881 the family lived on Burbury Street, Lozells.3

Edward Corr died in 1887, more than ten months before my great-grandfather’s birth.2

The informant on Frank’s birth certificate was his father Luke O’Grady. Luke gave his occupation as glass embosser (journeyman)—a skilled trade connected to the glassmaking industry common in the English Black Country since the 17th century—and his address as 135 Brearley Street where Frank was born. Frank’s mother is named as Emily O’Grady (sic) formerly Farley.1

This use of the surname O’Grady for or by Emily must have been a common-law arrangement, or else a polite fiction on behalf of Luke O’Grady for the registrar’s benefit: there is no record of a marriage between Emily and anyone named O’Grady, and Emily never used the name again.

It seems that Emily could not read or write;5 perhaps that’s why she didn’t register the birth herself.

In the 1891 census, the three-year-old Frank O’Grady was with his maternal grandmother Emma Farley in Barr Street, Birmingham; his mother Emily was a few streets away at 6 Tower Street working as a machinist, with John, Alfred and Edward, three of her four surviving sons by Edward Corr. (The fourth son, Harold, was also being cared for by relatives locally.) Frank’s father Luke O’Grady is nowhere to be found.6

After this point my great-grandfather Frank used Corr exclusively as his adult surname.

By 1901, Frank Corr had left Birmingham and moved to Sheffield with his mother and half-brother Harold, and was working as a labourer in the steel industry at the age of just thirteen. Emily, Harold and Frank lived at 46 Blaco Road, Attercliffe-cum-Darnall, along with ‘boarder’ Charles Tillbrook and two of Charles’s children.7 Emily Corr née Farley married her ‘boarder’ later the same year and became Emily Tillbrook.2

(In 1911, Frank’s mother Emily and her second husband Charles Tillbrook were living at 83 Clifton Street, Sheffield, with Charles’s daughter Elizabeth and Emily’s son Harold Corr – albeit recorded on the census under his stepfather’s surname as “Harold Tillbrook”.8 Emily died in 1919; Charles Tillbrook in 1930.9 Of Frank’s three surviving half-brothers, John Felix stayed in Birmingham and became a brassworker. Edward joined the Army and was stationed at Whittington Barracks near Lichfield in Staffs:8 he served with the 3rd South Staffordshire Regiment in WWI.10Harold Corr/”Tillbrook” settled in Sheffield and worked as a gas stoker in the steel industry.8)

Frank stayed in Sheffield for the rest of his life, marrying Lily Bowden on 16th February 1907 at Sheffield Registry Office. To the registrar he gave his father’s name as Luke O’Grady, occupation glass embosser. Frank’s marriage certificate included both names for the record (“Frank O’Grady otherwise Frank Corr“) – this is the last recorded use of the name O’Grady.11By 1911, Lily and Frank Corr—occupation steel dresser—were living in Carbrook, Sheffield with their first two daughters of an eventual eleven children.8

I have been told by a distant cousin that Frank and Lily’s eldest daughter Emily (born 1907)2 certainly knew of something relating to her father being of Irish decent and that he was probably illegitimate.12

Frank Corr died on 19th January 1962 and was buried with his wife Lily in Tinsley Park Cemetery in Sheffield.9 He didn’t leave a will.

Frank and Lily’s seventh child was my maternal grandfather Harold Corr (1921-1999).1,13 A career soldier, Harold served in WWII, Korea, Hong Kong and Germany before leaving the Army and settling in Lincolnshire in the 1960s. Harold Corr and my grandmother Rubynée Howson had six children and fifteen grandchildren including the author of this document.

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Who was Luke O’Grady?

“Wolverhampton Luke”

I now believe that Frank’s father was almost certainly Luke Grady, born 1867 in Wolverhampton.2

Luke was the son of Irish-born cordwainer (i.e. master shoe/bootmaker) William Grady, of Armagh, and Wolverhampton native Jane née Spooner, who married at St George’s church in Wolverhampton on 23rd April 1859.14 Luke Grady had four sisters: Ellen or Helen (born 1860), Martha (1864), Agnes (1871) and Winifred (1876), plus one older brother Mark (1862).2 They lived at 80 Temple Street, Wolverhampton.15

“Wolverhampton Luke” Grady was the first cousin of Edward Corr, the dead husband of Emily Corr née Farley. Their respective mothers (Harriet and Jane Spooner) were sisters, the daughters of shoemaker Edward Spooner and Ann née Highfield.12

Sketch family tree showing the relationship between Edward Corr and Luke O’GradySome dates of birth and death are unconfirmedImage created using Family Echo software (www.familyecho.com)

The patronymic “O'” in Irish surnames was often dropped in the 19th century, at least in England, so “Grady” and “O’Grady” would have been almost interchangeable. The Wolverhampton family appear as plain “Grady” in almost all registration/census records and in an 1880 newspaper report concerning a court case,16 although Luke’s father was recorded as “William O. Grady” on one census.3

Jane Grady died in 1878 and William in 1884,2 so Luke was pretty much alone in the world by the time of Frank O’Grady’s birth in 1888.

There isn’t a single record of “Wolverhampton Luke” Grady in England after 1881: no marriage or death entries and no census or employment records. His proximity and family ties to the Corrs, along with the suspicious timing of his disappearance, all suggest strongly that he is Frank’s father. However I have no positive evidence to connect him with the Black Country glass industry or to place him in Birmingham in 1888. I’ve also been unable to trace the fate of all of Luke’s siblings – what happened to them all after they lost their father in 1884?

(Luke’s brother Mark [O’]Grady became a general clerk for the Great Western Railway in London & Cardiff.17 He died in 1889 in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. His youngest sister Winifred married Austin Horsley in 1897, had one daughter, and died in Sussex in 1930. Agnes is recorded working as a domestic servant in London in 1891, but then disappears. Of Ellen and Martha, nothing.)

“Buffalo Bill Luke”

I am not the only person searching for Luke O’Grady. I have been contacted by a descendant of Francis Patrick O’Grady (c.1893-1971): Francis’s father was also called Luke O’Grady, and seems also to have disappeared somewhat mysteriously.12

Francis P. O’Grady was born c. 1st March 1893, possibly in Ireland, although no birth or baptism records have been traced for him. When he married in England in 1925, and again (having been widowed) in 1930, he gave his father’s name as Luke O’Grady, occupation ‘house decorator’.

According to a family story, Francis’s father Luke O’Grady left his wife Mary Ann [maiden name unknown] and their young son, to travel with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, and may have had one or more children with another woman. Francis P. O’Grady apparently grew up in Ireland and England, had an adopted / step-sister called Mona, and a cousin (either paternal or maternal) named Sammy. When Francis’s mother Mary Ann O’Grady died in 1940 she was recorded as being the widow of Luke O’Grady, house decorator (master).

It is possible that the same Luke O’Grady was the father of both Frank O’Grady/Corr and Francis Patrick O’Grady, making them half-brothers. Even if this is not the case, “Buffalo Bill” Luke O’Grady seems to have been just as elusive—both before and after the birth of his son—as ‘my’ Luke O’Grady.

“Holbeach Luke” (Now discounted.)

There was one other Luke Grady alive in England at the time of Frank’s birth (Luke Grady b.1848 in Holbeach, Lincolnshire – d.1891 in Cockermouth, Cumberland)2 but “Holbeach Luke” raised a family in northern England and doesn’t seem to have had any connection to Birmingham or to glassmaking.3

“Germanic Luke”

The Germanic, before 1895White Star Line steamship, built 1874 at Belfast by Harland and Wolff, as she appeared before her funnels were lengthened and an extra deck added in 1895.Courtesy of the Norway Heritage Collection – www.norwayheritage.comSource: www.heritage-ships.com

On 10th August 1888, eight months after Frank was born, the ship the Germanic docked at New York, late of Liverpool and Queenstown (Cobh). On board was Luke O’Grady, a labourer, aged 35, nationality English. The age and occupation are wrong for “Wolverhampton Luke”, but the timing is suspicious!18

On 20th July 1894 at the Common Pleas Court in New York, Luke became a naturalized American. His address at the time was 419 East 22nd Street, New York City and his sponsor was Timothy Maloney.19

I have been unable to trace “Germanic Luke” O’Grady in England before 1888 or in the USA after naturalization in 1894. He does not appear in any of the US censuses as far as I can tell.

So: did Luke Grady of Wolverhampton emigrate immediately after his son’s birth in 1888? Was he the father of Francis P. O’Grady as well as Frank O’Grady/Corr? Or were these Luke [O’]Gradys two or three different people (in which case: what happened to them all, and to “Wolverhampton” Luke’s remaining siblings?).

Finally, there is the possibility that Luke O’Grady was simply a stock pseudonym used by whomever registered the birth, and that Frank’s real father’s name was something else entirely. (Now discounted.)

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Where next? Ideas for further research

These are my ideas for further research to prove the identity, origin and fate of my 2-greats-grandfather:

Track down more records from Frank’s own life – there is at least one other descendant of Frank Corr who is researching the family history.

Try and determine the fate of “Wolverhampton Luke” Grady’s brother and four sisters.

Search the UK censuses for glass embossers in 1891, in the possibility that Luke O’Grady changed his name but continued in the same occupation.

Find out who lived at 2 Back 135 Brearley Street, Lozells, Birmingham, immediately before and after Frank’s birth in 1888.

Determine the whereabouts of “Holbeach Luke” Grady in 1888, if only to rule him out.

Share all information with anyone who is researching the identity of Luke the father of Francis Patrick O’Grady; in particular for possible records of Luke O’Grady living with a wife Mary Ann in Ireland, and/or as an employee of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in the early 1900s.

Trace any living descendants of Emily Farley’s children Frank Corr, John Felix Corr, Alfred Edward Corr, Edward Corr jr and Harold Corr, and those of William Grady of Wolverhampton.

Look for records of Luke [O’]Grady in Ireland and Scotland both before and after 1888.

Investigate Y-chromosomal DNA testing between a living male-line descendant of Frank Corr (there are four in my immediate family) vs. a proven patrilineal descendant of William Grady if one can be found. There are no such descendants.

British Army medal index cards (digital image, The National Archives, http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ : accessed 3 March 2014 citing War Office, Service Medal and Award Rolls Index, First World War, ref. WO 372).

“New York, Petitions for Naturalization, 1794-1906” (digital images, Ancestry Library Edition, http://www.ancestrylibrary.com/ : accessed 3 March 2014; citing Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85, National Archives at New York City).

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Note on links to sources

Hyperlinks in the text of this document point to source documents and catalogues/indexes which contain or illustrate the information referenced. Where possible I have linked to free & open sources (FreeBMD; catalogue/archival records). In other cases where the source is not freely available, I have linked to a record within Ancestry Library Edition: these links will display an error message unless you first establish a session on Ancestry within a subscribing library building (e.g. in Lincolnshire).